Built in 1947, the Fegeol Twin Coach Model 44-D buses were supposed to replace the cable cars. They failed to do so, and only lasted six years, but Muni has restored one of them, and it rode again for Muni Heritage Weekend.

This past weekend was Muni Heritage Weekend, and as they do every year for the occasion, the SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) rolled out all of their boat trams, vintage street cars, and wild and crazy 1970s buses.

But the Chronicle has a fascinating report on a restored, vintage bus that used to roam these seven-by-seven miles in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and has not been seen since. It’s technical name is the Fegeol Twin Coach Model 44-D, with that old-time Pepsi ad still slapped on the front, and this model of buses was supposed to replace the cable cars when introduced in 1947.

Needless to say this failed to happen. The Chronicle admits they ran the January 29,1947 headline “Cable cars on way out; city orders super buses,” reporting that these green monsters could carry more passengers than cable cars, and were supposed to be better at handling hills. That was thanks to their twin gas-powered engines, seen as revolutionary at first, but it turns out they kept breaking down.

Meanwhile, the local Women’s Chamber of Commerce and a group calling themselves the “Cable Car Ladies” ran a successful public relations campaign to save the cable cars. The so-called “Hillclimber” green buses were relegated to other routes, the invention of the diesel engine made the twin gas-powered engine obsolete, and the last of the Fegeol Twin Coach Model 44-D was retired from SF service in 1953. They did not, in fact, replace any cable cars.

But they are vintage beauties. The local historic preservation group Market Street Railway found two surviving models on Orange County, and bought them. Mechanics have been working for about seven years to make one of the two models operate again, and it ran full San Francisco routes for the first time in decades this past weekend.

“There is no question that the star of any Muni event is the boat tram,” Market Street Railway President Rick Laubscher told the Chronicle. “But that bus is a very important part of San Francisco’s history for what it was intended to do — replace the cable cars. We celebrate the fact that it didn’t.”  

Related: Muni’s Boat Tram and Other Vintage Streetcars Begin Their Summer Return to Service Today [SFist]

Image: Market Street Railway-San Francisco via Facebook